


Fortune Favors The Brave

by girlwithdemonblood



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, M/M, Minor Character Death, Pacific Rim AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-08
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 09:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2424497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlwithdemonblood/pseuds/girlwithdemonblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is called back into the Jaeger Program after being retired for years. After the death of his copilot he's wary of returning to the program, but when he meets Harry Styles, he thinks he might be able to drift again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortune Favors The Brave

**Author's Note:**

> Rachel wore me down I have finally written 1D fic and its a pacific rim au this is my destiny this is what i was born for

The helicopter touches down and Harry rushes out to meet it. The door opens and Gemma strides out, hair whipping in the wind. She takes his clipboard and starts talking to him about test runs and nuclear reactors but Harry isn’t listening. He’s too busy staring at the god that walks out behind her. He’s scruffy and has the bluest eyes Harry has ever seen. They almost glow like Kaiju blood. His face is carefully blank and, as he bends down to grab his duffle, Harry gapes at the finest ass he has ever laid his eyes on. He’s still staring when Louis turns around and raises an eyebrow at him.

“Louis, this is Harry, the best engineer we’ve got around here. He’s in charge of the repairs on Swag Master.” Thank the lord for Gemma Styles and her impeccable timing, which saves Harry from having to stutter out some sort of greeting that only embarrasses him further.

“Hi. I hope you’ve gotten her into good shape,” Louis says, holding out his hand. Harry stares down at it and his only thought is ‘small hands’.

“Harry?” Gemma says, looking worried.

“Oh. Right! Hi, I’m Harry. Styles. I’m Harry Styles.” He grabs Louis’ hand and aggressively shakes it for an awkwardly long amount of time. When he drops it, his face is bright red. “I just. I’ve gotta-“ Harry points vaguely towards the base. “There are. Um. Things.” He snatches the clipboard back from Gemma and makes a hasty exit towards the hanger where Swag Master is being rebuilt. He is such a fucking embarrassment.

 

~*~*~

 

When they moved the Jaeger program to Hong Kong and pulled Louis off the wall, he wasn’t expecting to step foot back in Swag Master, but there she is. He can still see where the hull was ripped open and Stan was yanked from the controls. He can see the damage from piloting her on his own. But to everyone else she was rebuilt and ready to take down Kaiju with his copilot. Once he found one, anyway.

Marshall Gemma Styles had introduced him to Zayn, head of controls, who had then introduced Liam and Niall of the K-Science department after they burst into the room arguing about the possibility of a double event. Once the quarrel had been settled, he was shown to his quarters for the evening to rest for the copilot trials in the morning. Louis’ currently pacing the metal box they call his room. Thirteen steps, don’t hit the wall, turn, repeat. . He never expected to be drift compatible with anyone in the first place, but to pilot with someone new is a challenge he isn’t sure he’s ready to face.

Instead of following orders Louis decides to wander around the base in the hopes of finding his chill. He stops a few yards away from Swag Master and stares up at her. His Jaeger was his home and now he’s seeing her get opened up and gutted. He takes a step closer and finds a good spot to watch. Seeing her opened up like that is horrifying but beautiful at the same time. He watches someone work on blueprints for a while. Their fingers are long and nimble and they’re attached to delicate wrists that look perfect for bruising. He lets his thoughts wander for a while before he realizes exactly who he’s staring at. It’s the Styles kid. Louis met him earlier in the day, but it had been a brief and awkward encounter. He didn’t think much of the kid at the time, but seeing Harry in his element, he can’t help but think the world of him. The way Harry works on Swag Master, like he’s breathing life into the cold metal, is hypnotizing. He works over the machine carefully, giving the upmost of attention to every small detail. The fire in his eyes is burning hotter than anything Louis’ ever seen and he has to drag his eyes away from the engineer and walk away so he can regain any sense of composure.

After watching the mechanics work on rewiring his Jaeger and, some deep breathing, he walks through the balconies, seeing the familiar faces and a lot of new ones. He recognizes Tom and Lou Teasdale sitting near their Jaeger, Lux Fury, right away, but the other two pilot teams are new. He’d seen Jesy and Perrie in Femme Fatale taking down a category 2 Kaiju on the news, but the team next to them- Ed and Ellie of Burning One - are complete strangers to him. He considered being polite and introducing himself, but honestly after the day he’s had, talking to people is not ideal. Instead he turns and heads back to his room. He has a lot of long days ahead of him. Might as well sleep while he has the chance.

 

~*~*~

Louis is bored as hell. Every move these rookies throw at him are predictable and boring. Not even the smallest spark of chemistry is visible in any of the candidates; everyone can see it. Gemma stoic on the side but even through her calm façade he can see her annoyance. She’s flicking through her paperwork and preparing to call the next candidate when a tall, lanky boy with a mop of curls stumbles into the room. Louis remembers him from yesterday. Harry Styles, Gemma’s little brother. He was the one who redesigned Swag Master and brought her back to life. He was also the person Louis spent a long ass time staring at last night, drinking in the way his curls framed his face and his red, plump lips, but that is neither here nor there. Harry walks over to the edge of the mats and sizes Louis up. He bends down, unties his laces and removes his boots from his feet, then strips to his undershirt. Louis could tell from the hungry look in his eyes that he didn’t just want to build Jaegers, he wanted to pilot them. Grabbing a staff from someone and preparing to fight, he walks towards Gemma with his eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. “No,” Gemma says without turning around.

“Let me try.”

“No.”

“You promised.” The boy replies slowly.

“Things changed.” Gemma stares the boy down. The room grows tense, everyone waiting to see which would snap first.

Louis is the one to break the silence. “C’mon, Marshall. Gimme a little bit of a challenge. Your best and brightest here looks up to it.” Louis hopes he can fight more gracefully than he speaks, flashing back to their meeting. Harry doesn’t wait for Gemma’s permission before stepping out onto the mats and getting into position. “I’m not going to go easy on you,” Louis rolls his shoulders and plants his feet.

“Same here,” Harry replies, moving his staff up into his opening position.

They circle the floor for a moment, daring the other to make the first move. Louis steps forward and swings, only to be met with Harry’s staff. Louis fakes right and goes left, getting in his first hit. He waggles his eyebrows at Harry.

“One-zero.”

Before he can fully get back in the game, Harry retaliates and lands his first hit.

“One-one,” He deadpans. Louis smirks. So this is how it’s going to be.

 

Five minutes later and they’re tied. Fighting Harry hasn’t been a fight at all. They are dancing. The back and forth between them flows smoothly and consumes them. They work together rather than against each other and when their sticks clash together bringing their faces inches from each other, Louis can see it. They’re drift compatible.

 

~*~*~*

 

Being hooked into the cockpit of Swag Master for the first time in two years is a dream come true and a nightmare all at once. Louis feels like he had come home, but he still expects to look to his left and see Stan getting ripped from his harness. When he works up the courage to look, the only scary thing to see next to him is Harry smiling with his dimples so deep Louis could burrow into them and make a home on this boy’s sweet face. Ever since they became copilots, Harry’s been smiling at him like he’s got a secret. Louis doesn’t have a clue what kind of secret that beanpole could keep from him, but he’ll find out soon enough.

“Initiating neural load,” Zayn says from his spot at the controls. He pushes a button and the world falls away. Niall and Liam bickering in the background, Zayn and Gemma discussing their alignment, everything falls silent and Louis falls into the drift. He’s in his house chasing his sisters, kissing his first boyfriend. He’s in the academy training with Stan. He’s in Harry’s bedroom and Gemma is painting his nails. He’s holding the twins for the first time. Harry’s first day of school. Louis playing football. Harry meeting Louis for the first time and being knocked off his feet, then running back to the hanger and feeling flushed and embarrassed the rest of the day. Falling asleep thinking of blue eyes and small hands. They all happen and don’t happen at the same time and then they’re locked in. They raise their arms together and the Jaeger moves with them. It worked.

~*~~*~

Harry flicks through Louis’ memories like a scrapbook, learning about his family, his childhood, his inner most thoughts and fears. He feels Stan get ripped out of Swag Master, he feels the weight of having to pilot tons of deadly steel on his own. Playing with his cat and watching movies with his mom; Stan’s funeral and working on the wall. He flips back and forth, Louis’ memories mixing with his own and his heart is beating a mile a minute. The more of Louis he sees, the more he wants him.

Louis wandering around the Shatterdome feeling lost and lonely. Louis watching Harry rewire Swag Master. Louis focusing on Harry’s long fingers hooking up circuits and sketching out blueprints for other repairs. Harry sees them all and is more than pleased that Louis has noticed him almost as much as he’d noticed Louis. There could be some hope for Harry yet.

“Disengaging the neural load,” Zayn’s voice cuts through the cockpit. The drift snaps in half and each individual consciousness is pulled into its respective body. Harry’s out of breath and he feels alive. He looks over to Louis and grins a mile wide. Louis smirks back, eyes shining with promise.

 

~*~*~*

 

The walk from the hanger back to their rooms is quiet. Louis and Harry are walking close to each other so every few steps the tips of their fingers brush together. Harry’s cheeks are crimson and he listens to their steps echo down the long metal hallways with a smile on his face. When you drift with someone, there’s nothing left to say, and yet, there are words lodged in the back of his throat waiting to burst from between his lips. There’s so much he wants to say to Louis, not because Louis doesn’t know, but because he wants to say them over and over again until his throat is raw and his lips are cracked.

Before he gets the chance to open his mouth and let the words spill out onto the floor around them, they’ve reached their rooms and taken a step back from each other. Louis rubs the back of his neck and smiles sheepishly. “Some drift, huh? Not bad for your first time.”

Harry swallows. “Yeah.” He takes a breath and looks down at his feet. “So…” he mumbles to the floor while Louis looks on. Harry looks up and before he can finish his thought, Louis is in his personal space and leaning towards him. Harry stands completely still, praying for something to happen but too scared to move. He waits, hardly daring to breathe, and feels the dry press of Louis’ lips to his cheek.

They’re gone as quick as they arrived and Louis is turning towards his door, throwing a “See you later, Curly,” over his shoulder. Harry’s brain shuts down and reboots in ten seconds and before he can think about it, he’s got his hand clamped around Louis’ wrist and pulls him back towards him. Louis slams into Harry’s torso and he can hardly catch his breath before Harry’s mouth is on his and the world is reduced to the feeling of lips on lips and Harry’s hands griping his hips tight enough to bruise. Louis breaks the kiss and stares at Harry, panting for a moment before bringing his hands to the back of Harry’s neck to fist at his curls and pull him back down again. It’s messy and wet this time around; their teeth clack together and they’re slobbering all over each other’s mouths, but it’s perfect and warm and honestly, there is no better feeling in the world.

 

~*~*~*~*~**~*~

 

The alarm blares at some god awful hour and Louis groans and pulls the blanket back over his head. He wants to roll back over and sleep, but the voice over the intercom is telling them to suit up and be at ready to head out five minutes ago. He hears a horrible groan from the space next to him and cracks his eye open to see Harry trying to smother himself with a pillow. Someone is yelling over the comm again and Harry grabs the clock on the bedside table and tries to throw it at the speaker. “No. Bad. Sleeping,” he mutters while curling back up and pretending there isn’t a giant ass monster destroying the city so he can get another fifteen minutes of sleep. Louis laughs at him while sitting up and pulling on his shirt. For someone who fought hard to be a pilot, Harry sure doesn’t want to get out of bed. Louis spends another minute watching Harry trying to sleep, smacking his lips, shifting his weight, and doing everything he can to become one with the mattress. The third time someone starts yelling is when Louis finally decides it’s time to go. He rips the blankets off of Harry and tosses them to the floor.

“C’mon, Grumpy Face. Let’s go be heroes.” He grabs Harry’s ankle and starts pulling.

“Nooooooooooo,” Harry whines while clutching the pillow. Louis drags him onto the floor, pillow and all, before tossing the boy some clothes and turning on the light.

“It’s not so bad. C’mon, I’ll even let you throw the first punch.” Harry perks up at the offer.

“Really?”

“Really. Now get your perky butt out of bed. We’ve got Kaiju ass to kick.”


End file.
